The music stepped aside,

as the words cut in to dance

 

Painting the floor red

in lettered steps of eternity

 

To a song now consonant

in verses of celebration

 

Thoughts and feelings remarry

—in patterns of remembrance

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

 

Does trying to disprove

What I believe

Make you feel better about what

You don’t….

Is it your insecurity

Crying out

That maybe I feel something

You won’t….

Is it the depth of my rebuttal

That bothers you so

Leaving you both lonely

And alone….

Like a branch that’s now broken

Swinging high in the tree

One strong gust

—and your fated to go

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

I happen to be cast a

different way

 

Molten like igneous

stone

 

I live on the boundary

where others won’t play

 

At the edge of the scary

unknown

 

The chess board on fire,

as the Russian sage smiles

 

With the questions the same

only more

 

All answers now servant,

as I step off the ledge

 

The fall better this time

—than before

 

(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)

Deep into the night of the harrowing dawn,

old voices went astray

 

And fast on the morning of no return,

final judgment came to stay

 

Crashing like a wave was the prophet’s voice,

this time not to be ignored

 

Washing away all excuse and false remorse

with damnation

     —forgotten Lord

 

(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)

From silver to gold,

the years marched along

 

As language emboldened

its words into song

 

The grey of my twilight

a welcome relief

 

All reasoned excuses

now another’s belief

 

As the winds through the canyon

blow the valley to sand

 

This ending now welcome

—a new beginning again

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Long before the clocks ticked,

  the garden was burning

 

The law had been laid down,

   only the animals ran free

 

Long before the clocks ticked,

  two lovers were yearning

 

The power, the struggle

  —the lust to deceive

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2015)

Will the pieces of the life you’ve lived

  come together at the end

 

 Will the times that you reflected

  straighten your path out, free of bends

 

 Are the places that you visited

  more than way stops that you chose

 

Are the feelings that you left with

  still inside you—heaven knows

 

Are your children still in contact,

  do they ask you what you think

 

Are your parents now forgotten

  as you pour yourself a drink

 

Are the days now counted backwards

  with the best all left behind

 

Does the silence serve to haunt you

  with those things you cannot find

 

Does the laughter fall on deafness,

  do the smiles pass you by

 

Are your friends now off your guest list

  with no time then left to find

 

Are the pieces of your puzzle

  pointed sharp, and ill to fit

 

Does your conscience wear a muzzle

  with the blame an endless pit

 

Is it what you said you wanted

  when you started down this path

 

Or are you now among the hunted

  in a bad choice aftermath

 

If before you’re gone, one chance flew by

  a difference then to make

 

Would you hang on tight to all the lies,

  or embrace this change of fate

 

And if you do, the words will say,

  you almost got it wrong

 

Before you called those choices back

  —and changed them into song

 

(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)

   The flames rose
    as history burned
         —and memory settled into ash

                                                           The smoke carrying away
                                                                  all reasons why
                                                         —dying embers of the past